What Did God Create On the First Day of Creation?

Oftentimes, when a person is asked what God made on day one of the Creation week, he responds by saying simply, “God made light.” When young people sing the “Days of Creation” song (where each verse in the song corresponds with what God did during each day of the Creation week), the first verse they sing is: “Day one, day one, God made light when there was none.” Both of these statements are true. Genesis 1:3-5 states: “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.” But was light the only thing that God created on the first day of Creation?

The work of day one may appear at first to include only the creation of light. However, it was not the only thing God made on day one. If light were the only thing created on day one, then one must ask whence the water came that already was in existence on day two. For on the second day of Creation, God made an expanse to divide “the waters from the waters” (Genesis 1:6). Apparently, these “waters” already were present on day two when the expanse (atmosphere) was made. In fact, that is exactly what Genesis 1:1-2 teaches: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (emp. added). The initial creation of the earth (on day one) consisted of a watery, unformed-and-unfilled substance over which the Spirit hovered. (Remember: it was not until day three that God made an Earth composed of land, sea, and vegetation.) Thus, God not only created light on day one (vss. 3-5), but also made “the heavens and the earth” (vss. 1-2).

Contrary to what some may think, on day one God created the heavens, the earth, and light. Although it is correct to sing and teach that God made light on day one of Creation, we also must not forget that on the same day God created the “heavens and the earth.”

We are happy to grant permission for items in the "Doctrinal Matters" section to be reproduced in part or in their entirety, as long as the following stipulations are observed: (1) Apologetics Press must be designated as the original publisher; (2) the specific Apologetics Press Web site URL must be noted; (3) the author’s name must remain attached to the materials; (4) textual alterations of any kind are strictly forbidden; (5) Some illustrations (e.g., photographs, charts, graphics, etc.) are not the intellectual property of Apologetics Press and as such cannot be reproduced from our site without consent from the person or organization that maintains those intellectual rights; (6) serialization of written material (e.g., running an article in several parts) is permitted, as long as the whole of the material is made available, without editing, in a reasonable length of time; (7) articles, excepting brief quotations, may not be offered for sale or included in items offered for sale; and (8) articles may be reproduced in electronic form for posting on Web sites pending they are not edited or altered from their original content and that credit is given to Apologetics Press, including the web location from which the articles were taken.